Smashing Pumpkins-American Gothic EP (January 2)

In between heavy touring schedules, the Smashing Pumpkins have found time to create a four-song acoustic EP, "American Gothic," to be released Jan. 2 exclusively via iTunes in the U.S.

The set includes the tracks "The Rose March," "Pox, "Again, Again, Again (The Crux)" and "Sunkissed," and was produced by frontman Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The band has previously performed "The Rose March" on the road.

"I had written a bunch of material during the residencies in Asheville and San Francisco [earlier this year], and fans kept asking us if we were gonna put any of that stuff out," Corgan says. "iTunes came to us wanting to do something together, so it just felt right."

The EP comes on the heels of the band's "reunion" album, "Zeitgeist" (Martha's Music/Reprise), released earlier this year. That set came in at No. 2 on The Billboard 200.

Smashing Pumpkins will take the show on the road in Europe again starting Jan. 27 in Belgrade, Serbia.

I guess at least one writer on Pitchfork is (was) a Smashing Pumpkins fan:

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Smashing Pumpkins' Anniversary Tour Is a Shitshow
Poor setlist choices, awful-sounding music, and confounding sartorial decisions mixed with heavy doses of audience mockery: These are the reports we've been getting about the Smashing Pumpkins' "20th Anniversary Tour", and guesses at Billy Corgan's motivations can only confuse and infuriate.

Corgan lashed out at his band's fans once again at a recent Chicago gig, and this outburst comes with a YouTube video [via Stereogum].

I mean, we get it, guy! You released a mediocre album and were disappointed when people thought it was mediocre.

But Billy, let's be clear: You say in that video, "Last I checked we were in an alternative band. 'Alternative' means 'different than what everyone else is doing,' including those reunion bands that go out and just play the old songs."

Incorrect! "Alternative" means nothing in 2008, and the fact that you don't seem to realize that probably has a lot to do with your confusion over people's disappointment when you don't just play your good songs instead of meandering off into formless noise jams. You can do your own thing all you want, but it's rude, to say the least, to begrudge people their expectations when they pay hundreds of dollars to see you. And you can mock "those reunion bands" all you want, but your insistence on ruining people's nostalgic fondness for your band instead of playing to it doesn't change the fact that you're cashing in, just like they are.

Personally, I don't buy that this intentional audience befuddling is some kind of pure pursuit of an artistic muse. It seems like the flailing around of an artist who has declined and is unwilling to face that truth even when his own fans proclaim it so by their reactions to his art.

While Stereogum's hypothesis that Corgan's antics could be "some Tony Clifton crowd-antagonizing performance art BS" is certainly interesting, I don't buy that either. The man has been too sincerely whiny and self-indulgent in the past for all of this to be one big joke.

So what do we take from this: Billy Corgan is crazy? We knew that. This "20th Anniversary Tour" might not live up to the expectations of longtime Pumpkins fans? We could have guessed that. Do we "give [them] another chance," as Corgan requested in a disingenuous apology to "those of you we've disappointed"?

It seems to me that Corgan himself suggested the best thing to do when he said, "It doesn't go anywhere from here. You might as well head to your cars."

I missed something. What's been happening during the end of these shows?

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...meandering off into formless noise jams...

At the show I went in March, they played a really extended version of United States at the end of the set. It went on FOREVER. I remember thinking "what the hell is this crap?!" and "when will this ever end?!".
Luckily, they played Cherub Rock during the encore which almost made me forget the awfulness. Almost.